Nanotechnology Applied to the Battle with Cancer

In 1959, physicist Richard Feynman described the future to us, namely the ability to develop tools to manipulate individual atoms and molecules to form new, ever-smaller materials.   While the actual ability to create these nanoparticles was but a dream in 1959, 50 years later, that dream is a reality, and fields from information technology to medicine are benefiting from the applications of this technology.  Nanotechnology is currently used in everything from sunscreen to computer circuits, but a recently published study shows that it may help us in our fight against cancer as well.

Mark Davis heads up a team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and their study, recently published in Nature magazine (http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100321/full/news.2010.138.html) proves the effectiveness of using nanorobots to battle skin cancer melanomas.  In this groundbreaking study of 15 participants, the use of nanorobots to effectively deliver particles that blocked the creation of cancer-building proteins was observed in three of the subjects.

The method for delivering this untypical “medication” is fairly simple – the nanoparticles are mixed with water and added to the patients bloodstream, where they find their way to the cancerous cells and deliver their deadly blast of cancer-blocking small-interfering RNA (siRNA).  This keeps the cancer from it’s typical growth cycle, namely by creating new proteins and cells.

These nanoparticles reportedly fall apart and are passed out of the body through the urine once their job is complete.  But part of the problem with nanomedicine and the research that is being done in the field is that it is so very new, especially when it comes to treating human subjects and not lab animals, therefore raising many questions that still need to be answered.  Can future cancer research using nanoparticles produce a higher success rate, possibly even a cure for some types of cancer?  Do treatments that involve nanoparticles truly leave no lasting effects on the body or the health of the individual?  Can these treatments be created in a manner that is cost-effective, allowing them to become commonplace enough that they are useful to society?

The National Institute of Health (NIH) is currently funding much of the research into nanomedicine, but as we’ve discussed before, NIH grants are very difficult to receive.  The equipment needed to create nanoparticles is not exactly the stuff of high school science labs either.  It will most probably be many years until the applications, such as this one for battling cancer, become common medical procedures.

There are those who say that this would definitely be a good thing though.  We all know that there have been quite a few recalls of prescription medications over the years due to unexpected numbers of deaths and severe side effects.  (Vioxx is a good example of this.)  Even if nanoparticles turn out to be the elusive cure for any disease, it is important to the health of everyone that they are thoroughly vetted and tested first